If Halloween is a little too scary for your tastes, VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver will be the place to celebrate the season without the usual chainsaws, fake blood, and costumed clowns… From October 24 – October 31, 2017 from 5:00pm to 9:00pm daily VanDusen Botanical Garden will be hosting “Glow in the Garden”, a whimsical garden adventure inspired by Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

You’re invited to take a trip through the looking glass on what will surely be an unforgettable Halloween walk in the woods at VanDusen Botanical Garden.

It’s hard to believe people get this crazy about a plant sale, but apparently this is true.

One day every spring, before dawn, the line starts forming outside of Vancouver’s VanDusen Botanical Garden. People camp out with lawn chairs, carrying blankets to keep them warm. Some bring picnic baskets to enjoy an alfresco breakfast, sipping orange juice and nibbling muffins. Many have their own wheelbarrows.

As the sun rises and the hours go by, the line swells.

Thousands will join the queue over the course of the morning, snaking in an enormous line outside the garden. Then, when 10 a.m. rolls around and the gates are officially thrown open, chaos breaks out. Imagine Walmart on Black Friday. Within 15 minutes, more than 1,000 people race inside, elbowing for position and jockeying to get to the head of the pack.

And for what?

Plants. Herbs and vegetables. Roses. Grasses. Vines. Trees. Shrubs. Perennials. Natives. More than 40,000 plants in total wait inside – part of the biggest, baddest plant sale in Metro Vancouver.

Inside Vancouver is a multi-author blog, written by Vancouverites about Vancouver. Our goal is to give an insider’s view of Vancouver, to provide information, stories and opinions from the locals’ perspective about this great city.